This invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing a video signal and a sound signal such as a video tape recorder or an apparatus for recording and reproducing a sound signal such as a mini disk player, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for use with an apparatus of the type mentioned by which a sound signal recorded on a recording medium is reproduced at a speed higher than a normal speed from the recording medium.
A video tape recorder for home use has been proposed wherein, when a video signal and a sound signal recorded on a tape are reproduced at a speed such as a double speed higher than a normal speed in order to shorten a reproduction time, an original reproduction sound signal is periodically patched while a sound absence portion thereof is deleted preferentially so that sound may be heard at the normal speed.
With the conventional sound reproduction method described above, however, since an original reproduction sound signal is periodically deleted, where a sound absence portion is not included at a fixed rate in the original reproduction sound signal, sound presence portions are deleted. Consequently, the reproduction sound signal after patched provides such intermittent sound that the hearing person cannot recognize contents of the reproduction sound signal.
Further, also in such a case that some sound absence portions are included in an original reproduction sound signal and the reproduction sound signal can be patched without deleting any sound presence portion, a sound absence portion is shortened and two adjacent sound presence portions come so close to each other that they may sound as different sound. For example, if a sound absence portion which precedes a close consonant like “k” becomes short, then “a-ka” sounds like “a-ga”.